This interview changed my thinking and what I knew about how horses breath and how they work under pressure.

Prof Cook has dedicated his life’s work to the study of issues with the horse’s breathing and how this is impacted by the way in which we ride and the equipment we use. As an equine ear, nose and throat surgeon and specialist he began by asking the seemingly simple question ‘what impact does a bit have on a horse?’. This question started a long journey to research and study. In the course of this study he came to see that horses actually didn’t need to be ridden in bits and in fact this is a relatively recent phenomenon and that the use of bits not only decreased performance but potentially were causing significant damage and even death. He developed a bitless bridle based on the research and now sells these to continue funding the research.